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Major museum redevelopments to benefit from Levelling Up funding
‘Nationally significant’ culture projects will receive share of £100m fund
The V&A Dundee, the National Railway Museum in York and National Museums Liverpool have received grants from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund.
The venues are among a number of “nationally significant” culture projects that will be funded from this year's £100m pot, the UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed in this week’s spring budget statement.
The V&A Dundee will receive £2.6m for the remodelling and extension of the Scottish Design Galleries.
National Museums Liverpool is to benefit from £10m towards its waterfront transformation project at Royal Albert Docks.
The National Railway Museum will receive £15m towards its £95m masterplan, which includes capital projects to extend and improve both the York museum and its sister site Locomotion in Shildon, County Durham. Both museums are part of the Science Museum Group.
Ian Blatchford, chief executive and director of the Science Museum Group, said: “This £15m investment in our ambitious plans for the National Railway Museum represents a strong vote of confidence in the transformative work underway right across the Science Museum Group, while the continuation of vital tax relief included in the Budget will be hugely welcomed by all in our sector.”
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Meanwhile, Leeds is to benefit from investment in two major culture projects: the development of the first National Poetry Centre (£5m) and the redevelopment of the historic Temple Works building so that it can serve as an eventual home for British Library North (£10m ).
Venue Cymru, a theatre and arena in Llandudno, Wales, will receive £10m, while Shore Road Skills Centre in Belfast has been granted £2.2m.
The projects were selected following discussions with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the basis of “wanting to have impact beyond a local area”, the government said.
The fund’s criteria was to support “projects that have significant potential to develop the creative and cultural sector or part of the creative cultural sector”, and/or “an activity that engages and impacts a significant number of people, beyond the applicant’s own geographic area”.
In addition to the six culture projects, the £100m fund will also support local cultural projects with £5m in areas that have been previously prioritised for levelling up investment but have not benefited from the government’s Levelling Up Funds.
These areas are: Coventry, Erewash, High Peak, Maldon, Mendip, Newport, North Northamptonshire, Redditch, and Worcester.